IMO the USA had much better data than this youtube GDP chart below where even blind Freddy can see that China has been rapidly closing in on the USA since the GFC.
There was also anxt in the 1980s when Japan was on the rise but the late 80s recession together with Jap Corporate & Government debt sunk its economy for over a decade.
I hear what you are saying about US democracy and personal liberties, but, IMO, economics over time trumps political liberties . History tells us that.
IMO the US took its eye of the ball during the last decade of the USSR Cold War when it was hell bent on bankrupting the USSR which it did starting in 1989. All the while China was building its manufacturing from the ground up (private enterprise in SECs) and in the good Commo old fashioned mode from the top down in the form of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs)
Yankee hubris from the 90s to the end of the Obama era led the China Hawks to believe that "Market Forces" would tame the China's Command Economy and with it the CCP.
Of course when you see China's GDP vs that of the USA post the GFC, it is evident that the US thinking was wrong both in its perception of China and its perception of itself.
The scary thing about China is that it has economically prospered despite its abysmal human rights record and its ultra authoritarian regime.
Can the USA do a USSR on China? Who knows but the data is not encouraging, IMO, and its 50/50 on which will economically wobble first
